Your Daily Routine
“I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it's a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.” - Haruki Murakami
“Routine, in an intelligent person, is a sign of ambition.” - W.H. Auden
The value of routine
Elite remote workers utilize consistent and stable work routines to drive business results. Their routines are time-tested tools that are intentionally designed, experimented with, and refined for maximum efficiency.
Having good routines means you don't have to constantly make decisions about what to do next. In essence, a routine is where value is built.
A good routine drives quality
By now you understand how deep work directly affects quality. One of your best tools to achieve deep work is keeping a strict daily routine. Simply focusing on your most important tasks and those only will bring more value to your team, your company and you personally as well.
Having to answer chat messages, or getting distracted by other, less important work activities e.g. in the middle of writing a piece of code can cause more nasty bugs or even worse, more angry customers within seconds. Whatever is on chat, is just not worth the risk it poses to the quality of your work.
Routine pays dividends
Dedicating time and attention to build a powerful daily/weekly routine will pay dividends in your professional career, and your personal life. Instead of being restrictive, a strong routine frees you up to make a powerful impact. It fosters a work-life balance and pushes you to accomplish all of your goals in life. Efficient remote workers may have as much as three times the flexibility in their schedule as an office worker.
Creating a daily routine
The first step is to determine the best routine for yourself. Some people like to start working at 6 am, some can't even wake up until 9 am. Some people like to have 1-2 hours with their families or have some errands to do every morning. All of these are fine, as long as you adhere to the same routine every day.
1. Brainstorming your world-class work routine
To create your remote work routine, contemplate the following questions. Include your best ideas in a paragraph describing your work routine at depth.
What time do I start?
Do I start at the same time each day? (Hint: yes is better)
Where is my ideal location for work?
Do I always (or mostly) work in the same place? (Hint: yes is better)
Is this location consistently available? How so?
What potential distractions exist in my work environment?
Do I have a backup location in case of an emergency? Where is it?
How does my timezone affect communication and productivity? What is the ideal time for me to make calls?
Do I take breaks during the day? How many and for what duration?
Here are some additional considerations which may be important while contemplating and formulating your highly-advantaged work routine:
If I have kids, what are their schedules
Do I have family or other roommates with whom I’m sharing space
Do I have a workout routine? If so, what is it?
Am I making good food choices and living a healthy lifestyle?
Do I have pets I need to consider?
How do I make family time and work-life balance a priority?
2. Set up your calendar
Once you have all of your activities, possible distractions and obligations written down you can start setting up your calendar. Use your workplace's calendar of choice, like google calendar, and set up your work slots as meetings.
In your calendar, you have to account for all activities that you're planning to do each day, like emails and chatting, also your availability for meetings. The two most common focus breakers are chat and random calls from colleagues. You do want to help your colleagues, but you can't sacrifice your focus blocks for it.
If you are a "maker", like a developer, a support agent, an accountant, etc. (so your job is not managing people), then you need to control your meeting time heavily, so your manager/colleagues don't distract you with random meeting requests in the middle of your focus block.
For example:
3. Follow the routine
Now comes the hardest part. Sticking to your calendar! Turn off chat, turn off desktop notifications for emails and just work on your main work activity. In your email/chat work slot, read and answer all of your important emails, then return to your work knowing that you're up-to-date with everything.
You will be surprised how keeping this strict separation between value-added and non-value activities will increase your quality and productivity
Remote myth busting
Conclusion
The power of routine is undeniable. Developing a daily work routine that fosters deep work is one of the most powerful contributions to a successful career you can make. Routine creates space to allow for value creation, with great quality.
Creating a daily routine is as simple as determining your activities, setting up a calendar and sticking to it.
Respect your own time, both your professional and private life will be grateful for it!
Assessment
Make sure you use your company account for taking the quiz.
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